An insomnia treatment from Dr. Claire Weekes

This is an excerpt from Dr. Claire Weekes' "Hope and Help for your Nerves". Chapter 20. I am not transcribing it verbatim.

It helped me immensely last night and stopped my panic in it's tracks. Though this was written in relation to sleep, it can be used in any area of your life that causes anxiety and panic, withdrawal-related or not.  Print it out and read it in bed when things get dicey.

 

 

 

"Sufferers of nervous illness sometimes dread the night. They lie in a bed of panic and sweat, with terrifying thoughts racing through their minds.

 

First, understand that your fears are terrifying only because your body is in a sensitized state, shooting off exaggerated responses, where normally you would feel perhaps no more than a vague disturbance. Your problems are not as terrible as your tired, sensitized body would have you believe. Therefore, try to see your panic for what it is, the exaggerated response of sensitized nerves and and not necessarily an expression of the magnitude of your problems. Make yourself as comfortable in bed as you can, relax to the best of your ability, then examine the feeling of panic and be prepared to let it sweep over you. Relax and go with it. Do not shrink from it or try to control it.

 

You will find that if you can do this, the waves of panic will settle into being a hot, sore feeling tin the pit of your stomach. You can get so used to this feeling that you can drop off to sleep with it there.

Your own thoughts may bring this panic, or it may sweep over you without apparent cause. If your thoughts are to blame, recognize that they are only thoughts; although, coming as they do so charged with fear, they may appear as monsters. Recognize that they are only thoughts and let them float away. Release them. Let them go. Do not clutch them.

 

When you decide to face panic and see it through, you feel some relief, and this brings its own relaxation and a certain amount of peace. I say a certain amount, because at first you may not be aware of a great change in the way you feel. Although there is acceptance in your mind, your body may not resound to this for a while. However, it is possible that you may be surprised at the relief you feel. This may be so great that you may find your attention wandering from yourself.

 

It is easy for me to say relax and accept. I know that it may be very difficult to a tense, panic-stricken person to relax, but it can be done. Remember, the panic is there only because your nerves are sensitized to it. One spasm of fear is making you more fearful of the next, so that each spasm seems more intense than the last. If you relax, analyze the spasms, and resign yourself to having them temporarily, without adding a second fear, you will develop an inner peace that will break the cycle  of spasm-panic-spasm."     

Thanks for taking the time to post that for us Linda.

 

Good info!

 

Love,

Sandy

eljay, wow........I didn't know that is what I had done but I can attest to the fact that it works. It requires the ability to be totally logical but it can be done if we don't surrender to the panic. One must try to step back from the immediate situation and look at it from another perspective and evaluate. I know I've related it to labor before but it is very much like labor pains and the waves that come with it..........much easier for us women who have had labor pains to relate to I guess.

eljay, wow........I didn't know that is what I had done but I can attest to the fact that it works. It requires the ability to be totally logical but it can be done if we don't surrender to the panic. One must try to step back from the immediate situation and look at it from another perspective and evaluate. I know I've related it to labor before but it is very much like labor pains and the waves that come with it..........much easier for us women who have had labor pains to relate to I guess.

 

Good analogy. But I have never been preggers and it still worked great for me!

 

I think for me the most helpful part is to let it come on and wash over. It just somehow takes the fear out of it. Like she says, it's not the monster we make it out to be. It unmasks it.

It's strange, but i have tried so many relaxation techniques in trying to stop or reverse these sx, but all they do is make me more anxious. But when I read this last night. It really incredibly stopped it dead in it's tracks. From practically the first line. I sure wish for it to work for everyone as well as it did me. But I think it does take practice. Maybe practicing it at other times when the anxiety level is lower might be helpful.

That was a great book.  I had difficulty comprehending anything during my worst times...but I read it after and it helps now for anxiety.  Even though I'm fully recovered from benzo's, I'm still and probably always will be, an anxious person.  That's what got me here in the first place 

 

Jen

Even though I'm fully recovered from benzo's, I'm still and probably always will be, an anxious person.  That's what got me here in the first place 

 

Jen

 

Same here Jen. I was born anxious! 

Even though I'm fully recovered from benzo's, I'm still and probably always will be, an anxious person.  That's what got me here in the first place 

 

Jen

 

Same here Jen. I was born anxious! 

 

You know, I though about this statement I just made and it's not really true. As a baby and small child I was pretty calm and well balanced. When I was around 9 years old, we lost a beloved cat. We looked for him for months on end. I never got over it. I can still cry over it if I think about it too much. I think it was the first time in my life where I felt I had no control over something horrible, and it changed me. After that, I became anxious. I remember being terrified when my parents would go out at night cuz I thought they would die in a car accident on the way home. I'd lay awake half the night until they came home. 

So I've spent my whole life being an anxious neurotic, all because of a dumb cat!!

Yep, I am definately a product of my childhood.  As I said before, I'm surprised I walk upright...LOL

 

and I'll never apologize to anyone again about how I react to things.  When you are born and raised in a complete nightmare....you tend to be a tad bit skiddish...LOL

 

Love,

 

Jen

I have the printer ON

thanx...

I think the point that caught my eye first was...

 

panic for what it is, the exaggerated response of sensitized nerves and and not necessarily an expression of the magnitude of your problems.

 

Think I'll try reading through this every nite for a while....the thing about "the magnitude of my problems" strikes me pretty hard

 

Sk

I know SK, that line got me too. I felt my whole body let go when I read that line. 

YeeHa! Isn't it great when we get those moments of clarity! The smallest of things can be life changing.

Even though I'm fully recovered from benzo's, I'm still and probably always will be, an anxious person.  That's what got me here in the first place 

 

Jen

 

Same here Jen. I was born anxious! 

 

I was anxious about being born! 

Sk

linda this is an awesome thread - you have moved up to motivational group therapy now.

 

we really need a thread like this - can we take like one exercise a day and practice it?

The smallest of things can be life changing.

 

I find this in itself a very powerful statement.  Sometimes it is just a small attitude adjustment.  I suppose what Claire Weeks says in the statement, that learning to look at it differently is just a small attitude adjustment.  To think differently about something that  we currently believe.

 

Sometimes when I'm able to isolate a thought, or something that I've believed for a long time, I start asking myself, I say "Self, how's that working for you?" 

 

I will print the article off tomorrow, will also try to find this book by Claire Weeks.  It sounds awesome.

 

 

Wise words, thanks. I have also asked my pscyhologist about Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) which has been shown to be heplful to people with anxiety, panic attack, insomina and other things as well. Used alot with PTSD. Anyway, I am looking into other things to help calm my mind. I have never investigated such things that much, always just tried to understand the neurophysiology, endocrinology etc. of aneity, depsression and insomnia. I think its time to reprogram my thinking for a change.Pokeyhttp://www.emdr.com/  a web page on the topic if you are intersted.

Claire Weekes is another great resource for anxiety and insomnia solutions

Couldn't sleep, so I'm bumping up this wonderful excerpt from Claire Weekes.